I get to write a lot when schools out for snow. Its funny teachers never assign homework when there's snow. Also with the house-elf. The Dumbledores were a pureblood family and as there well off I would expect them to have one house elf at least.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
It was lightly snowing when they arrived back. They went back into the living room where Minerva started up the fire. She unshrunk Hermione's packages and handed them to her.
"Why don't you put your things away in your room? Then come back down okay?" Minerva told her. Hermione nodded and ran up the stairs. Minerva unshrunk the rest of her things. "Twinky!" She shouted, and a small house-elf with a clean neat uniform appeared.
"Hello Mistress, what can Twinky be doing for you." The house-elf said with a polite curtsey.
"Thank you Twinky did the groceries arrive in one piece?" Minerva asked.
"Yes Miss, and Twinky put them away for you."
"Okay, Twinky and I need on more thing. I need you to put these in their normal spots, and I need you wrap these two." She said pointing to Hermione's book and Albus's candy.
"Twinky can do that for you Miss, but may Twinky ask a question?"
"Certainly."
"Who is the young lady with you?"
"That is one of my students who is probably going to be staying with us for a long time." She mentioned for Twinky to lean closer. "I want to adopt her, but don't tell her she doesn't know yet. I'm waiting till after the holidays to go to the Ministry." She whispered and Twinky got a big smile on her face.
"Oh, yea! A little girl here will be nice I'm so happy for you. May I meet her?" Twinky asked with big eyes.
"Yes, come back down when you're done with the wrapping and I'll introduce you." Minerva said with a smile.
"Thank you Mistress." And then Twinky and the packages disappeared with a pop. Hermione came downstairs a couple seconds later.
"Who were you talking to?" She asked still in her sweater.
"Oh, you'll meet her soon enough." Minerva said with a smile. "Want to help me trim the tree?"
"Yeah!" She said with a grin. Minerva pulled out her wand.
"Accio decorations." She said and a few seconds later about 3 big boxes zoomed into the room and placed themselves down on the floor.
"Cool." Hermione looked at the spell. "Can you teach me that?" She looked to Minerva with excitement. She laughed.
"It's still a bit advanced for you," She smiled, "Though while you're here you can practice magic." She started to open the boxes and was pulling things out. She blew off some dust from the box. "This stuff hasn't been used in years."
"How come?" Hermione had pulled some garland out of the 2nd box. There was red, gold, and green.
"I'm normally at Hogwarts," She explained. "Though I do get a little tree for my quarters there. It's all decorated by the house-elf's"
"Oh" Minerva started to string lights slowly around the tree. She picked up some of the red and green garland and tossed it to Hermione.
"Wrap that around the staircase." Hermione laughed as it fell on top of her. Minerva sent her a smile. She was glad that Hermione was laughing and having a good time. She concentrated on getting the lights to wrap around the tree. She always did it the muggle way, with magic you never got it into tree well. She heard Hermione laughing from behind her but ignored it. She assumed she looked funny trying to do this.
There was a tiny pop beside her, Twinky had come back.
"All done Mistress, may I meet little miss now." Twinky asked with a smile, and she snapped her fingers and the lights were wrapped around the tree perfectly.
"Yes," She straightened up "and thank you." She turned around but didn't see Hermione "Hermione?" She looked back at the staircase didn't see her and turned back towards the boxes. A few seconds later she heard a giggle, and turned back towards the stair case. Hermione was straddling the rail half way up the staircase, with a big smile on her face. Minerva let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Hermione had noticed Twinky and was staring at the creature.
"Are you a house-elf?" She asked politely.
"Yes young Miss, I am Twinky. It is very nice to meet one of the Mistress's students." Twinky said with big grin and her ears up.
"It's nice to meet you to." Hermione said and by this time Minerva regained control of herself.
"Get down from there, you'll hurt yourself." Minerva scolded. She started walking over to the stairs and Hermione sled the rest of the way down. "That's not what I meant when I said get down." She walked over and partially picked Hermione off the rail. "Do me a favor and stay off the rail okay?"
"Okay." Hermione went and shook hands with Twinky. "So what do you do for Minerva?" She asked the house-elf.
"Oh pretty much whatever she or Master Albus want. I don't do much though, so I stay at Hogwarts and work there in the year." Twinky informed her.
"That's so cool." Hermione remarked. Twinky blushed and put her ears down.
"I be thanking you Miss." Twinky said.
"You don't have to call me miss you can call me Hermione."
"Okay Miss."
"No call me Hermione." The girl insisted.
"Okay Miss Hermione." Hermione groaned. Twinky gave a little laugh.
"Alright Twinky, that's enough don't annoy her to much, I still need her to help put this stuff up."
"Okay Mistress, do you be needing me for any thing else? Or do you want me to help you?"
"No you can go back to Hogwarts. Thank you." Minerva told her. Twinky was gone with a pop.
"So that's a house-elf?" Hermione asked. Minerva nodded and put a decoration on the tree.
"I'm surprised you knew what a house-elf was." Hermione continued to surprise her with her knowledge of the magic world. Most muggle-borns had no idea about any magical creatures until they take care of magical creatures in their 3rd year.
"I overheard an older Gryffindor talking about them. So I looked them up." Hermione said with a smile. She handed Minerva another decoration.
An hour later, the tree was fully trimmed and the decorations covered the inside of the house. There were some of the weirdest decorations Hermione had ever seen. A small wooden horse that actually galloped around the tree. A Santa Clause that waved his hat at you. And Hermione's favorite little tiny fairies that flew around the tree and yellow dust would fall on the tree and what little presents were there. Minerva had to whistle them back into a tiny box.
"Why'd you put them away?" She asked. She had wanted to watch the fairies some more.
"Because as pretty as they are," She snapped the lid shut on the box. "They make a terrible mess. I just thought you'd like to see them." Hermione nodded and pulled out her wand.
"Can I try to clean it up?" She asked holding up her new charms book. Minerva nodded and Hermione pursued her book.
"Sourgify." Hermione shouted and pointed her wand at the tree. Bubbles and water shot out of Hermione's wand and she shouted and backed up and ended the spell. Minerva laughed and with a quick wave of her wand they disappeared.
"Try again, and this time," Minerva pointed in the book. "Try this one." Hermione took the book in her hands and studied it for a few minutes. Minerva was putting everything else away when Hermione snapped the book shut. Minerva turned to watch her.
"Evanesco!" Hermione said pointing her wand. Nothing happened. "Evanesco!" She said more forcefully and all the dust disappeared from the floor and presents. She turned to Minerva with a great big smile.
"Great job!" Minerva said with a smile and was thrilled when Hermione came and gave her a hug.
"I did it." Hermione said. Minerva laughed and banished the decorations back to where they came. The clock above them struck 3 and it made Minerva realize how late it had gotten.
"We never had any lunch, what do you want?" She asked Hermione and moved towards the kitchen.
"I'm not all that hungry," Hermione told her sheepishly. "I think I had too much ice cream." She yawned.
"Well how about you watch some TV and I'll make us some sandwiches, you need to eat something. What type of sandwich do you want?" She asked.
"Peanut Butter and Jelly please." Was Hermione's response and she turned the TV onto Disney channel (I don't know if Disney channel was around in 1992 but deal with it). Hermione curled into a ball and watched Mickey's Christmas special. Minerva came back in a few minutes later with the sandwiches and a glass of milk of Hermione. They ate in the living room where Hermione had the pleasure of explaining Mickey Mouse to her professor. Hermione yawned again and Minerva considered how this must have been a tiring day for the girl. She spends a week barely eating and doing nothing, and then she spends a day going to various places and decorating.
"Hermione, I think you need to need to take a nap." Hermione looked affronted by that suggestion.
"I'm fine, besides taking a nap in the middle of the day messes up your internal clock. If I take a nap now I won't be able to sleep tonight." Hermione said stubbornly and yawned again. Minerva picked up a pillow and put it in her lap. She patted the pillow.
"You need a rest; I promise I won't let you sleep over an hour. Lay down here." Hermione looked at the pillow in Minerva's lap and blushed.
"I'm good." She said timidly. Minerva sighed she had hoped Hermione would be more comfortable with her.
"Hermione no one's here, it's just me and I'm not going to bite." Minerva said softly and finally Hermione crawled over and laid her head in Minerva's lap. Minerva started to stroke her hair and Hermione quickly fell asleep. Minerva turned off the TV and turned on the Wizard Wireless Network. She listened to the Christmas music and felt herself start to drift off. She shifted Hermione so the girl was laying on her, and Minerva laid down on the couch. She wrapped her arms around Hermione, and she remembered her mother holding her like this when she was little. It brought a smile to her face and she drifted off to sleep.
Albus walked into the house, tired but looking forward to spending the rest of the holidays with his wife, and the girl he hoped would become a daughter to him. When he walked into the living room the first thing he noticed was beautiful Christmas tree. Then he noticed the two women in his life asleep on the couch. He smiled, he was so happy for Minerva. They both thought that their dreams of having a family had disappeared when the healer told Minerva she wouldn't be able to have children. Some of the pain disappeared at school as they dealed with children daily, but it never fully helped Minerva who had always wanted to be a mother. He picked up his camera and took of couple pictures of the two, before covering them with a blanket. He took the disregarded tray and carried it into the kitchen where he started dinner.
Minerva woke roughly an hour later and smiled down at Hermione. I could get used to this she thought. She had always wanted to be a mother, and she swore she would be there for Hermione if she needed her. She stroked Hermione's hair and didn't notice Albus come in and watch her. It wasn't till the flash of the camera light up the room did she look up.
"Albus you'll wake her up." She scolded him with a whisper.
"You both just looked so adorable." He sighed, and he put the camera on a stand and set the timer. "Family photo." He said with a grin and came and crouched next to her.
"Albus." She hissed and she pointed to Hermione.
"Smile mommy." He said and against her will she cracked a smile right when the camera took the picture. He jumped back up and took the camera off the stand. "Hey it came out pretty good."
"You are dead Albus Dumbledore." She threatened he laughed and walked back into the kitchen. Minerva lifted Hermione up and laid her down on softly. She stalked into the kitchen and slapped her husband on the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" She looked at him ludicrously.
"If she had woken up and seen that, I just got her to open up to me." She glared at him.
"I'm sorry but it was a prefect picture moment." He explained and threw his arms up. She glared at him. She noticed Albus had started cooking on the stove.
"How long was I asleep?" Minerva asked.
"Well it's quarter to five." He said and Minerva's eyes got big.
"How did I sleep that long." She thought, "I'd better wake Hermione up."
"Good because dinners ready." He said with a smile. She looked back at him.
"You're still in trouble mister." She said and went to wake Hermione up.
Fifteen minutes later they were all seated around the table eating dinner.
"So what did you two do today?" Albus asked.
"We went to the muggle shopping market." At Albus's expectant look Minerva frowned. "No I didn't get you anything. You know I forget to get your candy if you don't remind me." She winked at Hermione who giggled.
"Then we went to Diagon Alley and Minerva got me this." Hermione said and she stood up to show him her jumper with a happy smile. He laughed.
"Yeah go Gryffindor, but don't tell anyone I'm not supposed to take sides as headmaster." He said with a secret smile.
"Hey how come Twinky doesn't cook for you? I thought house-elf's did all the cooking?" Hermione asked.
"We prefer not to make Twinky cook for us; we enjoy doing it by ourselves." Minerva explained.
"Oh . . . I'm glad you guys are nice to Twinky." She said.
"Why?" Albus asked.
"Because it sounds like slave labor, I don't believe in slave labor." Minerva and Albus shared a look.
"Hermione sadly a lot of pure-bloods do use house-elf's like slaves. A lot of house-elf's don't think anything about it." Minerva explained.
"But why they're magical creatures too." She asked.
"The ministry's laws about creatures are often lack." Minerva explained.
"But that's prejudice." Hermione said. It struck Minerva as odd that Hermione could be so like a kid a times but then talks about equal rights and prejudice.
"We do treat Twinky like an equal, but it is sad that others don't have more respect for creatures." Minerva said.
"Sadly it is prejudice, the minister however won't change his opinion on these matters and with the elitist pure bloods bribing their way into the government." Albus explained with a sigh. "Onto better topics tomorrow is Christmas eve which means. . ." He started and looked at Minerva who gaorned.
"What happens on Christmas eve? Besides Christmas stuff." Hermione asked.
"He," Minerva said pointing to her husband. "Goes into full on baking mode and bakes a mess of cookies." He looked offended.
"I thought you loved my tradition of baking on Christmas Eve." He said.
"I did until you caused a riot at Hogwarts with free cookies, and even when you did that, I still had cookies in my office till June." She gave him that look that makes her students tell all their secrets.
"Well we have an extra hand this year, right Hermione?"
"Right." She said grinning.
"Hermione don't agree with him." Minerva said exasperated and she put her head in her hand. "All it does is make him more excited." She said. Hermione laughed.
"Well how about we move this into the living room. We will all be more comfortable in there." Albus suggested. And they spent the evening playing various different games.
I know an update so soon. I planned to post this Monday but a nor'easter is suppose to come give the east coast 16 to 24 inches of snow. WOW, that's a lot for an area that is normally lucky to get an inch. So on the off chance that schools cancelled I'm posting this early.
And please review.